March 6, 2013

2012-13 Summit League Men’s Basketball–Final Awards Preview

Things have changed a bit since we previewed this at midseason. One of the biggest things was finding out that this is based on conference play only… so stats are from just that period. Here’s who I might have voted for. My methodology is largely statistical since only seeing each team once (maybe twice) doesn’t give you a great view of how good each player is.

Four obvious ones if you are okay with Braun being 1st team despite playing only seven games in conference… I think I’m okay with that. You could take issue with my final two but both have had very good years.

I imagine the two most picked on for me having them second team will be Clark III and Gaines. Compare Clark III to Mondy and Mondy’s stats come out better I think. Gaines is second team because he does one thing really well, score, but he’s not a great shooter. It’s definitely close though. All five of these players (and Petros below) were really close to Bjorklund to me.

I think this one’s quite clear. Simmons good but not at Mondy’s overall level.

Coach of the YearDerrin Hansen – Omaha – 6-10

I’ve advocated that the coach of the year should be the coach who got more out of his team than anyone thought possible. Two coaches did that this year, Derrin Hansen with Omaha and Jim Molinari with Western Illinois. I’ll give the nod to Hansen as I expected a lot less out of them than I did Molinari’s bunch with several great seniors.

Monday came off the bench in nine of the 16 Summit League games, the final nine. Is that enough to make him eligible? I’m honestly not sure. If not I’m probably going for Thomas Staton of Kansas City who only started six. If I can’t pick him it’s Joe Edwards of Fort Wayne who only started once.